Updated on December 5, 3:28 p.m. (GMT+8): Added background information in last paragraph, corrected date in first paragraph.
Yuji Itadori’s voice actor, Junya Enoki, was the star of Jujutsu Kaisen’s day stage panel at Anime Festival Asia Singapore 2024 (AFA SG) held on December 1, Sunday.
He held a fan meet and greet session before the day stage panel, answering many fan questions.
It’s his second time visiting Singapore and he’s happy to be here because he enjoys warm weather more than cold. He recalls seeing fireworks at Marina Bay Sands 10 years ago when he first visited and people partying in the area.
Sally Amaki, who is a big fan of Jujutsu Kaisen (specifically Suguru Geto), and emcee Yoppy hosted Enoki-san on stage, focusing the discussion around the behind-the-scenes of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2.
Yuji Itadori’s voice actor Junya Enoki went above and beyond in the most tragic scene in Jujutsu Kaisen
Warning: Spoilers if you haven’t watched Jujutsu Kaisen season 2.
Enoki-san highlighted two key scenes that left a deep impression on him from season 2. The first is when Nanami tells Yuji to go on without him. This results in Nanami’s death — he fought transfigured humans, Haruta Shigemo, and was eventually killed by Mahito.
The second is when Yuji returns to consciousness after Sukuna does a number on Shibuya and murders a bunch of people in Thunderclap, Part 2, Season 2 Episode 17. As the memories flood in, Yuji becomes uncontrollably emotional.
“I had to really, in real life, push myself mentally to make sure to prepare for that scene,” said Enoki-san. “Before the actual recording session, I was stomping my feet in front of the building getting myself ready. I also heightened my anger by slapping blank posts.”
For voice recording sessions, voice actors typically record standing up. However, for this particular scene, he asked the sound director if he could record it while on the ground, mimicking Yuji’s posture in order to make it more realistic.
“This was something that I was planning to do from the get-go… to sacrifice myself in order to really act out the scene. Because of this, I was able to bring out all this emotion,” Enoki-san said.
After this scene, Yuji went on to fight Choso, and he paid attention to all that led up to this point so that he could lead with the character’s emotions moving forward.
Surprisingly, Enoki-san said that the hardest scene to voice act in season 2 is neither of the two above, but rather, the one where Itadori was chasing after Mahito in the snow in Metamorphosis, Season 2 Episode 21.
“This was a very serious scene. When I was recording it, I was sitting face-to-face with Mahito’s voice actor, Nobunaga Shimazaki. Rather than looking at the screen, I was looking at Nobunaga’s face,” Enoki-san said. “So it really brought out these real, pure emotions in a scene where both of them are fighting for their lives. I was even drooling during that recording session.”
Enoki-san revealed that he usually talks face to face with fellow voice actors of different characters in Jujutsu Kaisen. Esepcially in this hunter-prey scene with Mahito, he felt that he needed to make an effort to put himself in that mindset.
“Voice acting isn’t something that you do alone. It’s something that you do with your team of other voice actors, with the other staff, and you are all working together to make this one series cohesively. So that is the appeal of voice acting as well,” Enoki-san concluded.
Junya Enoki’s other notable roles include Takeru “T.K.” Takaishi (Digimon Adventure), Lawrence Bluewer (Black Butler: Public School Arc), Totomaru Isshiki (Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions), Degesu (Dragon Ball Daima), and Caelus the Honkai Star Rail protagonist.
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